feather_ghyll

The Star of Kazan: Eva Ibbotson, Macmillan, 2004.

I didn’t remember much about this book (only the fate of Rocco the horse, really) so rereading this almost felt like reading a new book, except it had that sense of things proceeding as they ought as so much of Ibbotson’s writing does, and some of that came from some dim memories of first reading it. (This was the my post about it at the time, which also discusses ‘Blue of the Sea’ by L.T. Meade.)

This is the story of ( Read more... )

Journey to the River Sea: Eva Ibbotson (Macmillan, 2002)

I’ve now reached the Ibbotson children’s books I own on my rereading of her books. ( Read more... )

A Song for Summer: Eva Ibbotson Quickbrew, 1998

Unless if I mis-tagged it, I don’t think I posted about ‘A Song for Summer’ here when I first read it.

( Read more... )

The Morning Gift: Eva Ibbotson Arrow 1994

The next book in my chronological reread of my Eva Ibbotson books, and I’ve enjoyed devouring it, seeing echoes of the heroes, heroines and Viennas of her other books. ( Read more... )

Here is a round-up of some things I posted about last year. ( Read more... )

Magic Flutes: Eva Ibbotson Picador 2009

I didn’t get as emotional this time as I did when first reading this, but there was certainly a moment where Tessa is so giving that made me catch my breath.

When looking up the chronology of Ibbotson’s books to see what came after ‘A Countess Below Stairs’, I discovered it was ‘Magic Flutes’, which I think was one of the last of Ibbotson’s books for adults - although it’s to be found on teenage fiction/young adult shelves now - that I came across, and that this book has won the Romantic Novel of the Year award in the early eighties. Now, I can’t claim to have read all the books in contention, but I can see why.

( Read more... )

One of these was read a stone's throw from the sea!

( The Dragonfly Pool by Eva Ibbotson / Rip Tide by Stella Rimington / The Vince-Clad Hill by Mabel Esther Allan / The Scholarship Girl by Josephine Elder )

I also read a Jillies book, which will get its own post in due course.

I have just returned from my first ever trip to Paris, where I was staying at a hotel that did not have Eurosport, sadly, so I couldn't watch the men’s US Open final. I really, really wish I’d been able to see it!

While there, I stumbled upon the famous Shakespeare & Co. That is to say, I meant to go there, but did so accidentally. It’s a cramped shop – too little space between the floor-to-ceiling shelves and too many of us tourists and bibliophiles shuffling through it. I felt obliged to buy something (in English, my French is about good enough to order food I want to eat these days). I popped into several bookshops – some catering for English readers, but quite a few definitely not - just because it's a compulsion of mine.

I visited a lot of touristy places and found quieter formal jardins to recover and in which I could read incongruous books such as the following

The Headland Mystery: Arthur Groom. The Children's Press.

( Read more... )

Madensky Square: Eva Ibbotson. Arrow, 1998.

( Read more... )

The Goats: Brock Cole. Cornerstone Books, 1989.

( Read more... )

Looking back at the last ten posts, I see I've been writing about tennis and non-fiction books, which isn't very representative. I've read quite a few books that I could have reviewed here, but didn't for one reason or another. I say "summer" because it's quite chilly and not one of these books were read on a beach.

Working backwards, here are some overviews of what I've been reading:

Casino for Sale: Caryl Brahms and S.J. Simon. The further adventures of the incomprable Ballet Stroganoff, as Stroganoff buys a casino in the south of France as a setting for his ballet company. Cue murder, balletomania and lots of laughing out loud.

Journey to the River Sea: Eva Ibbotson. The first book for children by Ibbotson that I read and it shares the same quality of 'just rightness' as her other books. It also shares a setting with 'A Company of Swans'.

Aunt Dimity's Good Deed: Nancy Atherton. The cosy series in which Aunt Dimity (a kindly spectral presence in this book) helps solve crimes and relationship woes continues, with the eccentricity of the characters who people this rose-tinted England rising ever higher. I enjoyed it but there's no getting away from the fact that bits of it are really peculiar.

The Intelligence Corps Saves the Island: M. Frow. (A sequel to 'The Intelligence Corps and Anna', which I see I didn't review.) The intelligence corps are two sets of twins and a dog. There are echoes of Swallows and Amazons and the Famous Five to this book, set at the end of a summer holiday in south-west Wales during the second world war. I wouldn't really recommend this, but I would the other three.

The Morning Gift: Eva Ibbotson
The Venetian Affair: Helen MacInnes
At Risk: Stella Rimington
Junior Captain: Nancy Breary
Sally Baxter, Girl Reporter - Hong Kong Deadline
They Called it World's End: Nan Chauncy

( Read more... )

[Partially edited for spelling, punctuation and grammar on 2/11/18.]